A conspiracy theorist is influencing Trump

"An unhinged conspiracy monger" now calls the shots on U.S. national security, said Tom Nichols in The Atlantic. Laura Loomer is a "far-right celebrity" who describes herself as a "proud Islamophobe," claims 9/11 was an inside job, and said a Kamala Harris White House would "smell like curry." She has no official role in the Trump administration, and even ardent Trump loyalists call her "toxic," but what she does have is Trump's ear. So, when she sat down last week for a meeting in the Oval Office, armed with a list of National Security Council officials she considered disloyal "neo-cons," Trump seemingly listened. The next day, at least six staffers were fired, followed by Gen. Timothy Haugh, the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command chief. Trump denied Loomer's role, but if she truly had nothing to do with it, the timing of their meeting is one "hell of a coincidence." Loomer was happy to take credit, said Josh Meyer in USA Today. She thanked Trump for acting on her advice about Haugh and vowed to expose more officials with "questionable loyalty."

Loomer's influence is "supposed to be shocking," but there's nothing surprising about it, said Issie Lapowsky in Vanity Fair. Trump himself is a conspiracy theorist who has embraced "political paranoia" relentlessly for decades, and Loomer knows "what matters to him." Trump can abide almost any malfeasance in his backers. Sexual-assault allegations against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth don't matter to the president, for example. But being charged, even in Loomer's kangaroo court, "with something less than total fealty is a non-starter." Trump admits he's not a trusting person, and that "breeds a voracious appetite for stories of nefarious plots hiding in plain sight." Loomer whispering about turncoats "whets that appetite."

Trump should be careful about surrounding himself with sycophants, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. His first-term advisers were willing to challenge his isolationist impulses, and those debates yielded good results, as when a U.S. drone strike killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Loomer's favored "abandon-the-world" faction "would never have had the wisdom" to pull that off. Instead, they could drive Trump into a bad nuclear deal with Tehran, a weak peace agreement in Ukraine, and a failure to deter China from attacking Taiwan. There are real-world consequences to purges like this. Who will risk giving Trump "candid counsel" if they're going to be "tossed out at the urging of an online mob?"

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